The Wanderer; or, Female Difficulties (Volume 5 of 5) Read online

  CHAPTER LXXXII

  Absorbed in grief, and unable to converse, though endeavouring to listento the Baronet, Juliet was only drawn from her melancholy reverie, bythe rattling of the carriage upon a pavement, as it passed, through aspacious gate, into the court-yard of a magnificent country seat.

  She demanded what this meant.

  Where better, he demanded in return, could she while away the intervalof waiting, than in viewing the finest works of art, displayed in atemple consecrated to their service?

  This was a scheme to force back all her consideration. In hearing himpronounce the word Wilton, she had merely thought of the town; not ofthe mansion of the Earl of Pembroke; which she now positively refusedentering; earnestly representing the necessity, as well as propriety, ina situation so perilous, of the most entire obscurity.

  He assured her that she would be less liable to observation in arepository of the _beaux arts_, at the villa of a nobleman, than bywaiting in a post-chaise, before the door of an inn; as he mustindispensably change horses; and grant a little repose to his old groom,who had been out with him all day.

  This she could not dispute, convinced, herself, that her greatest dangerlay in being recognized, or remarked, within the precincts of an inn.

  Nevertheless, how enter into such a mansion in a garb so unfit foradmission? She besought him to ask leave that she might remain in someempty apartment, as an humble dependent, while he viewed the house.

  Extremely pleased by an idea so consonant to his fantastic taste, heanswered her aloud, in alighting, 'Yes, yes, Mrs Betty! if you wish tosee the rooms, that you may give an account of all the pretty images tomy little ones, there can be no objection.'

  She descended from the chaise, meaning to remonstrate upon thismisconstruction of her request; but, not allowing her the opportunity,he gaily represented, to the person who shewed him the mansion, that hewas convoying a young nursery-maid, the daughter of a worthy old tenant,to his grand-children; and that she had a fancy to see all the finery,that she might make out some pretty stories, to tell the little dears,when she wanted to put them to sleep.

  Juliet, whose deep distress made her as little desire to see as to beseen, repeated that she wished to sit still in some spare room: hewalked on, pretending not to hear her, addressing himself to his_Cicerone_, whom he kept at his side; and therefore, as there was nofemale in view, to whom she could apply, she was compelled to follow.

  Not as Juliet she followed; Juliet whose soul was delightedly 'awake totender strokes of art,' whether in painting, music, or poetry; who neversaw excellence without emotion; and whose skill and taste would haveheightened her pleasure into rapture, her approbation into enthusiasm,in viewing the delicious assemblage of painting, statuary, antiques,natural curiosities, and artificial rarities, of Wilton;--not as Juliet,she followed; but as one to whom every thing was indifferent; whosediscernment was gone, whose eyes were dimmed, whose powers of perceptionwere asleep, and whose spirit of enjoyment was annihilated. Figures ofthe noblest sculpture; busts of historical interest; _alto_ and _bassorelievos_ of antique elegance; marbles, alabasters, spars, and lavers ofall colours, and in all forms; pictures glowing into life, and statuesappearing to command their beholders;--all that, at another period,would have made her forget every thing but themselves, now vainlysolicited a moment of her attention.

  It was by no means the fault of the Baronet, that this nearly morbidinsensibility was not conquered, by the revivyfying objects whichsurrounded her. He suffered her not to pass an AEsculapius, withoutdemanding a prescription for her health; a Mercury, without supplicatingan ordonnance for her spirits; a Minerva, without claiming anexhortation to courage; nor a Venus, without pointing out, thatperpetual beauty beams but through perpetual smiles: couching everyphrase under emblematical recommendations of story-subjects for thenursery.

  When the guide stood somewhat aloof, 'What say you, now,' he exultinglywhispered, 'to my famous little friends? Did they ever devise a moreingenious gambol? From your slave, by a mere wave of their wand, theyhave transformed me into your master! Ah, wicked syren! a dimple ofyours demolishes all their work, and again totters me down to yourfeet!'

  Nevertheless, even in this nearly torpid state, accident having raisedher eyes to Vandyke's children of Charles the First, the extraordinaryattraction of that fascinating picture, was exciting, unconsciously,some pleasure, when the sound of a carriage announcing a party to seethe house, she petitioned Sir Jaspar to avoid, if possible, being known.

  All compliance with whatever she could wish, the Baronet promised tonail his eyes to the lowest picture in the room, should they be joinedby any stragglers; and then, relinquishing all further examination, hebegged permission to wait for his horses, in an apartment which ispresided by a noble picture of Salvator Rosa; to which, neverdiscouraged, he strove to call the attention of Juliet.

  Nothing could more aptly harmonize, not only with his enthusiasticeulogiums, but with his quaint fancy, than that exquisite effusion ofthe painter's imagination, 'where, surely,' said the rapturous Baronet,'his pencil has been guided, if not impelled, in every stroke, by mydear little cronies the fairies! And that variety of vivifying objects;that rich, yet so elegant scenery, of airy gaiety, and ideal felicity,is palpably a representation of fairy land itself! Is it thither my dearlittle friends will, some day, convey me? And shall I be metamorphosedinto one of those youthful swains, that are twining their garlands withsuch bewitching grace? And shall I myself elect the fair one, aroundwhom I shall entwine mine?'

  This harangue was interrupted, by the appearance of a newly arrivedparty; but vainly Sir Jaspar kept his word, in reclining upon hiscrutches, till he was nearly prostrate upon the ground; he wasimmediately challenged by a lady; and that lady was Mrs Ireton.

  Juliet, inexpressibly shocked, hastily glided from the room, striving tocover her face with her luxuriously curling hair. She rambled about themansion, till she met with a chambermaid, from whom she entreatedpermission to wait in some private apartment, till the carriage to whichshe belonged should be ready.

  The maid, obligingly, took her to a small room; and Juliet, taught byher cruel confusion at the sight of Mrs Ireton, the censure, if notslander, to which travelling alone with a man, however old, might makeher liable; determined, at whatever hazard, to hang, henceforth, solelyupon herself. She resolved, therefore, to beg the assistance of thismaid-servant, to direct her to some safe rural lodging.

  But how great was her consternation, when, requiring, now, her purse,she suddenly missed,--what, in her late misery, she had neither guardednor thought of, her packet and her work-bag!

  Every pecuniary resource was now sunk at a blow! even the deposit, whichshe had held as sacred, of Harleigh, was lost!

  At what period of her disturbances this misfortune had happened, she hadno knowledge; nor whether her property had been dropt in her distress,or purloined; or simply left at the inn; the consequence, every way, wasequally dreadful: and but for Sir Jaspar, whom all sense of proprietyhad told her, the moment before, to shun, yet to whom, now, she becametied, by absolute necessity, her Difficulties, at this conjuncture,would have been nearly distracting.

  When the carriage was returned, with fresh horses, Sir Jaspar found herin a situation of augmented dismay, that filled him with concern; thoughhe also saw, that it was tempered by a grateful softness to himself,that he thought more than ever bewitching.

  He assured her that Mrs Ireton, whom he had adroitly shaken off, had notperceived her; but the moment that they were re-seated in the chaise,she communicated to him, with the most painful suffering, the new, andterrible stroke, by which she was oppressed.

  Viewing this as a mere pecuniary embarrassment, the joy of becomingagain useful, if not necessary, to her, sparkled in his eyes with almostyouthful vivacity; though he engaged to send his valet immediately tothe inn, to make enquiries, and offer rewards, for recovering thestrayed goods.

  This second loss of her purse, she suffered Sir Jaspar, without anyattempt a
t justification, to call an active epigram upon modern femaledrapery; which prefers continual inconvenience, innumerable privations,and the most distressing untidiness, to the antique habit of modesty andgood housewifery, which, erst, left the public display of the humanfigure to the statuary; deeming that to support the female character wasmore essential than to exhibit the female form.

  This second loss, also, by carrying back her reflections to the first,brought to her mind several circumstances, which cast a new light uponthat origin of the various misfortunes and adventures which had followedher arrival; and all her recollections, now she knew the rapacity andworthlessness of the pilot, pointed out to her that she had probablybeen robbed, at the moment when, impulsively, she was pouring forth,upon her knees, her thanks for her deliverance. Her work-bag, which,upon that occasion, she had deposited upon her seat, she remembered,though she had then attributed it to his vigilance and care, seeing inhis hands, when she arose.

  Arrived at the farm-house, they found themselves expected by the farmerand his wife, who paid the utmost respect to Sir Jaspar; but who saw,with an air of evidently suspicious surprize, the respect which hehimself paid to Mrs Betty, the nurse-maid; whose beauty, with her rusticattire, and disordered hair, would have made them instantly conclude herto be a lost young creature, had not the decency of her look, thedignity of her manner, and the grief visible in her countenance, spokenirresistibly in favour of her innocence. They spoke not, however, infavour of that of Sir Jaspar, whose old character of gallantry was wellknown to them; and induced their belief, that he was inveigling thisyoung woman from her friends, for her moral destruction. Theyaccommodated her, nevertheless, for the night; but, whatever might betheir pity, determined, should the Baronet visit her the next day, toinvent some other occupation for their spare bedroom.

  Unenviable was that night, as passed by their lodger, however acceptableto her was any asylum. She spent it in continual alarm; now shaking withthe terrour of pursuit; now affrighted with the prospect of beingpennyless; now shocked to find herself cast completely into the power ofa man, who, however aged, was her professed admirer; and now distractedby varying resolutions upon the measures which she ought immediately totake. And when, for a few minutes, her eyes, from extreme fatigue,insensibly closed, her dreams, short and horrible, renewed the dreadfulevent of the preceding day; again she saw herself pursued; again feltherself seized; and she blessed the piercing shrieks with which sheawoke, though they brought to her but the transient relief that she wassafe for the passing moment.